Very Basic questions about using Reason.

If you search around a bit, you should be able to find a short tutorial by (if I recall correctly) German hardtrance producers Cosmic Gate on how to build a kickdrum from scratch (start with a few sine waves, and process from there). In trance and hardcore circles it's quite common to do it this way, but as you probably know, in more conservative electro/techno circles people swear by the classic 808/909 sounds.

as for the synth side, yes, by messing around you can come up with pretty much any sound, although unless you know about synthesis this is going to be quite random in that if you are trying to get a specific sound, unless you know what you are doing you probably won't get what you are after. but, along the way you will probably come up with some interesting sounds. i do think the synth side of reason is a bit weak though.

and yes, the midi keyboard is just a conduit.

The drum sampler Redrum probably has 808 and 909 sample sets included. If not, there are plenty of 808 and 909 sample sets on the net, some better quality than others perhaps, and you can load them into Redrum as a soundbank and use them.

everyone's got their fave bit of software but as a programmer of some 15 years i'd throw my hat in with Ableton rather than Reason because i wish something like this was around when i started out. it's just so easy to learn and get fluid on. Reason seems like a virtual version of an analog studio with all it's attendant frustrations and the sequencing/automation side is a bit lumpy.

if you've got an m-audio oxygen 8 keyboard i'd also recommend NOT inputing MIDI via the USB port as it displays some latency which is a pain.

i'm not sure about the synths on reason, i use fruityloops and adore the ts-404 synth, it's a perfect starter synth and makes wicked tuff electro noises and 303 sounds (you can hear one on tomas anderson "washing up" for example.) this is pretty easily downloadable on the net or on slsk, i cannot reccomend it enough.

There are two different analogue-emulator synths included - Maelstrom and, erm... SubTractor (had to check). Both of these are almost infinitely customisable - the same as if they were analogue synths. You can set the basic wave-shapes from a long list, or make your own, combine them, put on ADSR and all other kinds of filters and combs and stuff. They are really, really super-versatile. There's no reason to ever use a pre-set you're unhappy with.

reason does not edit/record audio waveforms. you need an audio editor - protools, cubase, logic, etc. which you can record your own sounds. then you can import those sounds into reason via the drum samplers (recycle is great for making beat slices)

When I record something, can I then sort of save that as one "part" and begin working on the next part. Like, what's the best way to keep your basic song structure while you do a sort of bridge or deviate from it a bit, is there a save setting or something for individual devices?

Or can you have use one machine twice, effectively, like can I add in another line with the one Matrix synth I'm using for my bassline, or do I start a new one and hook it up to Subtractor again?

Sorry this is all sort of dumb probably but already making tracks seems a real "99 percent perspiration 1 percent" inspiration type of thing!

One thing I've found with putting drum sounds together in Reason: it helps if they have layers. The best sounds I've managed to put together tend to have a few things going on -- say, a kick that has a flat electronic bump at the low end, a quiet real-drum sound in the mid-range to add punch, and then some reverbed hiss at the high end to give it space.

If you're just starting, though, the important thing to figure out is how to script song movement -- play with the automations and the "curve" features as much as you can. (Automating filter sweeps with your keyboard should be a blast -- I always have to program them out by hand, it's annoying.)

here's a q: ableton can run AUs and VSTs; can you yank the AUs out of garageband and use them?

i think so. at least you could in 4 from what i remember. i'd check for you but i was running out of hard drive space so i trashed garageband.

Is it possible to power a MIDI controller through USB, but not send the MIDI through USB? I have had these latency problems. And I can't find my power cord, blech.

Yes. Just start up Live and all of your AUs will be there. Actually on second thought I'm not too sure about GarageBand because some of those effects might be the logic effects which aren't really AUs but are proprietary built-in things. But anyway, anything that's an actual AU will show up in Live. Live's own native effects are pretty nice as well.

Actually, this is a common misconception about USB MIDI keyboards. The latency is a function of your computer's soundcard, and it is completely adjustable.

1) Go into your Reason Preferences window and select Audio.
2) In the Audio dialog box, set the Buffer size to a value between 128 and 512 samples. The faster your CPU is (and the more RAM you have installed in your computer), the lower a setting you can use.
3) Close your Preferences window.
4) Select any module in Reason, and try playing your MIDI USB keyboard with it. Your latency should be significantly reduced.

I think the audio latency and MIDI latency are two different things and John was saying that the USB interface built into the keyboard has more latency than using the MIDI out and a better, dedicated MIDI interface.

actually, I don't know how one goes about doing this, but can we start a new board called I Love Gear or something like that, maybe I Love Equipment would be better? I have a ton of questions as I've been rebuilding my home set-up.